January 5, 2010

A new development: my boyfriend got me a banjo for Christmas, so I will be participating in the band nights I used to just cook for. Thus, unless I happen to not be working on Tuesdays, meals will also be simple, ideally less-than-60-minute concoctions. Onto the original post!

It's the Kick-off Meal for my new blog! And since it's so soon after making New Years Resolutions, I thought I'd start with something quite healthy.

I'm a lurker on Epicurious, and I find their recipes are generally tasty and flavourful, but usually super rich and decadent. So I was really happy the other day when I saw this post about The Great American Detox Diet.

Now, I'm not a huge fan of extreme dieting, and I abhor the idea of the "Master Cleanse". But after the holidays, I can somewhat understand wanting to press the reset button on your body. And Alex Jamieson, Morgan Spurlocks likely-long-suffering wife (I would suffer if I had to put up with him on a regular basis!), focuses on vegan cooking, which always interests me as an eco-vegetarian with a lactose-intolerant boyfriend! So vegan food that doesn't taste like sauteed cardboard is always welcome (p.s., for more non-cardboard vegan recipes, check out this blog, by a friend of mine and long-time vegan).

So tonight I'm cooking a few recipes from Alex's website: her Fall Chili, and her Vegan Cornbread Muffins. Because who says you can't have healthy food and comfort food at the same time! When I was a vegan (an ill-advised year as a teenager, because I am simply not organized enough to keep up with nutrition!), and for years as a vegetarian, I relied on Nalley Vegetarian Chili for a cheap, filling, super quick meal. My old roommate also used to make a super tasty vegetarian chili from a box by [?]. And I've never tried cornbread, although I'm good at quickbreads in general (banana bread is in my arsenal of sweets that impress!). So here's how they turned out:


Overall, I totally plan on making this recipe again. The whole meal took maybe an hour from start to finish, and that's because I was dawdling. I will definitely make the cornbread again, as it was probably the easiest set of muffins short of using a box! I used a minimuffin pan, and cooked them for only 10 minutes, and they turned out perfect. A word to the wise, by flaxseed meal instead of flax seed, because it would probably be easier than trying to crush your own.

As for the chili, it makes a pretty good portion - we comfortably fed 4 people, since the meal with the corn bread is pretty filling. I substituted hot sauce for chili, added paprika, and used cayenne pepper instead of red pepper flakes. Also, I about doubled the amount of cumin, cayenne, and salt. But I always expect to have to double the seasoning if I'm cooking a "health food" recipe!